dual booting Ubuntu 13.04 and Windows 7

[Tom H]

On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 5:25 PM, Gerhard Magnus <magnus at agora.rdrop.com> wrote:
>
> This may be helpful to anyone trying to dual boot Ubuntu 13.04 and Windows
> 7, or even just to install Ubuntu 13.04 by itself on some post-2010
> machines. At least the details will end up on the Web for someone having
> similar problems.
>
> I bought a new box with the Intel DB75EN motherboard that uses the UEFI
> standard and DPT partitioning for the hard drives. I also bought Windows 7
> Home Premium and had it installed at the shop. My plan was to dual boot
> Windows and Linux as I have successfully for the past decade or so. (I still
> need Windows because some people I collaborate with use Microsoft Word, and
> LibreOffice has never quite caught up with it.)
>
> Back home, I was able to easily install Ubuntu 13.04. Upon restarting, I was
> booted into Ubuntu without seeing a grub menu page. After shutting down, I
> did, however, find entries on the BIOS boot menu for both Microsoft and
> Ubuntu, and by changing the boot order I was able to boot successfully back
> into Windows.
>
> That was the last I saw of the Ubuntu installation for several days. There
> was still no grub menu but now no reference to Ubuntu in the BIOS boot list.
> And I could only boot into Windows 7.
>
> Although interesting and/or incredibly time wasting, none of the threads I
> traced on the Web offering solutions to this problem were useful in getting
> the Ubuntu OS back, let alone in allowing me to dual boot Ubuntu 13.04 with
> Windows 7. The dual boot may even be impossible with this post-2010
> motherboard, fulfilling Microsoft's long-term agenda to block Intel machines
> from running anything except Microsoft products. Those people are so evil!
>
> After a lot of hacking through the underbrush that got me nowhere, here's
> what ultimately worked:
> (1) Select "Try Ubuntu" with the 64-bit Desktop Installation CD and connect
> to the Internet.
> (2) sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
> (3) sudo apt-get update
> (4) sudo apt-get install boot-repair
> (5) Run boot-repair. Go to the "advanced" menu, and repair the MBR. This is
> the crucial step.
> (6) Install Ubuntu 13.04, being sure to use the option that erases the
> entire disk.
>
> I think Windows 7 keeps writing over information in the MBR to prevent the
> installation of any other OS. What I did completely nuked my Windows OS, but
> at least I was able to install Ubuntu 13.04.

If you're using UEFI, there's no MBR!

If you're using UEFI, you can go into the firmware either right after
boot or from the grub menu ("System setup") and select Windows or
Ubuntu - unless you've deleted the UEFI boot entries from NVRAM. Once
in Ubuntu, you can fix grub to display both Windows and Ubuntu
options.

I've installed Ubuntu alongside both Win7 and Win8 (the latter with
SB) without a hitch.